2015 Autumn Conference: Cambridge

he 2016 conference was a rare chance to Tsee the important historical glass in the chapels and halls of Cambridge University’s many colleges. We began with a visit to the chapel of Jesus College, where we were based. It was restored in the 19th C, first by Anthony Salvin, who was soon succeeded by Pugin, and Peter Cormack gave us a history of their involvement. In 1862 when more work was needed, George Bodley took charge, employing , Burne- Jones and Ford Madox Brown as designers. In the evening Tony Benyon filled us in on the glass we were about to see. THURSDAY At King’s College, the first venue, we were met by Professor Jean Michel Massing for a tour of the famous windows by Bernard Flower. However, a new-boys’ and parents’ choral service was then still taking place so we began in the hall ( centre right ); the windows belong to an ill-researched transitional 1830s period between Georgian and At the entrance to St Catherine’s were two windows by Harry Victorian ‘Gothic’, by John and George Hedgeland. In the chapel Warren Wilson, a student of RA Bell at the RCA who also is a 15C glazing scheme by King’s Glazier Bernard Flower, who worked at the Glass House. Other 19th and early 20th C glass also worked at Fairford, then after his death by Galyon Hone, was by AK Nicholson, Leonard Pownall, and Burlison & Grylls. A another King’s Glazier. The main windows exemplify 2012 window by Tom Denny was in memory of Neville Burston. glass, with so many masterful details in the faces; the side chapels At St Botolph’s church, the E window and other decorative contain a fine collection of medieval roundels and fragments work was done by the local firm of Frederick Leach (a 1870s from elsewhere, abounding with angels and animals ( top right ). restoration), under architect Charles Gray. Rachel Tannock, a student of who had worked at the Fulham Glass House, designed a S transept window. Christ’s College had more 15C glass, probably by the same craftsmen as at King’s. Figures on the N side resemble those at Fairford, some by Simon Symondes working under Flower and earlier work by William Neve, whose work can also be seen in and Westminster Abbey. They represent the last great flowering of English glass before the iconoclasts’ effects reduced the demand for ; these are Royal portraits, which were less of a target than religious figures. Holy Trinity church contained 19 –20th C glass; some fine RA Bell windows (1915) made by Guthrie’s of Glasgow showed how his style had developed from Art Nouveau in the 1890s to Deco, and their lesson is ‘you should use more lesson in your windows – it makes them more interesting’. Other glass here is by William Jay Bolton and his pupil William Constable. Back at the College, after a superb Hall dinner, we relaxed to an account by Steve Clare of his restoration at King’s. After a On to Robinson College, where there were two late John Piper survey and monitoring by Tobit Curtis, Steve produced a total windows. The main one, representing the Garden of Paradise, was plan for the building envelope. Problems included the ferramenta made by Joe Nuttgens and was full of flowerlike forms, in rich set in hard mortar, which was cracking the glass, and Steve reset greens with orange and deep blue highlights, with a golden the ends in soft lime mortar; also heavy-handed earlier cleaning centre; a small panel, based on a Romanesque stonework, was a that had left scrub marks on the softly painted glass. free interpretation masterfully etched by David Wasley ( above ). Westminster College Presbyterian chapel had a set of scenes dating to the 1920s by , who was reluctant to take on the work as he already had a full book of work after WWI, but was persuaded by the donor, Sir William Noble, whose wish was to ‘bring religion nearer the facts and ideas of modern life’. A Nativity ( right ) includes a pagan sibyl, another in reds and gold-pinks shows an apocalyptic vision of St John the Divine surrounded by great Cambridge figures (Milton, Newton, Cromwell) and preachers like Wesley – who were seen as ancestors of the Presbyterian tradititon. Also here were windows by Gerald Moira and Arthur Anselm Orr. Corpus Christi had four imported medieval (c.1510 –15) Rhenish (Cologne school?) monastery windows restored in the 1820s, some by Joseph Hale Miller and others by Yarrington and his assistant Zobel – who wasn’t a particularly good glasspainter even though a trained artist.

~ 4 ~ of other artists. The very dramatic sky is probably pot-metal. In 1637, when the iconoclasts reached Cambridge, the glass was removed and stored in cellars. Max Ainmiller (whose work is also in Regensburg Cathedral) made the nave windows (1855–8), which comprise one of the earliest surviving schemes of Munich glass- painting in the UK.

FRIDAY The first venue after a large breakfast did not strain us The Peterhouse dining hall was the first major work of Scott overmuch: it was just across the street at All Saints church. Here Junior, who tried to recapture the essence of the Perpendicular we found some early A&C glass of note: an 1866 E window by style. At his father’s recommendation, the decoration scheme Morris, Marshall, Fulkner & Co, a W window of the same date there, including wall paintings and tiles and the many windows, is by Morris, with angel figures by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. (made 1864–72). As well as holding the Sun and Moon, and Morris, there are designs by Philip Webb, Burne-Jones and Philip Webb’s signs of the zodiac Maddox Brown. Some windows depict college members from its in the S aisle. Finally, on the N 13C founding, and historical figures. Much foliage work by Morris side was a late Strachan (1944) is in evidence, there is a St George by Burne-Jones, and a series showing Acts of Mercy and Saintly of small panels illustrate women in Classical myths, including the Women . tale of Dido, with Aeneas’ ship sailing away in the background (above ). These panels were from the Chaucer version of the Trinity College Wren Library Greek myths, which Burne-Jones had illustrated. was designed by Christopher Wren (1695). The 1771 Alma Mater At Queens’ College chapel was mainly glass by Kempe, as well window, designed by the Italian as some by John Hardman from an earlier chapel replaced by painter Giovanni Cipriani, was the architect George Bodley. The dining hall contained a series painted by William Peckitt and depicting the Labours of the Months by Morris and others, as at depicted Trinity’s famous student Peterhouse, as well as angels holding the Sun and Moon. Sir Isaac Newton being presented Wesley Methodist church held a final, unexpected surprise – a to George III by the college 1964 Keith New E window ( below ) in rich hues – rust-orange, Muse, with Bacon looking on. streaky ambers, deep ultramarine and sapphire blues and emerald In Trinity Hall chapel the glass is mid-Victorian (1871–5), largely greens pinpointed with hot reds and bordered with white edges. designed by assisted by Carl Almquist and made by Heaton, Butler & Bayne. The scheme depicts famous figures representing stages in the development of the Christian Church, from the early days of the Disciples, through the early Western and Eastern branches (Charlemagne), Anglo-Saxon, Medieval (Dante) and Latin period (Pope Gregory), to the Reformation and finally the Victorian Church; many of the faces are those of eminent Victorians. Here also are two 1980 John Hayward windows marking the elevation of Robert Runcie, a former College Dean, to the See of Canterbury. St John’s College chapel was designed by , who suggested that the windows be made by Clayton & Bell (there are 17 by the firm there, including the W window). Also in the Antechapel is a 1855 Hardman. Ancient glass can be seen high up above the W window. In Peterhouse College chapel is a Crucifixion painted by Richard Butler (?1630s) after Rubens’s famous painting for the Friars Minor church in Antwerp. A well-known engraver made an engraving of the painting, which was then distributed around Europe to get more work for Rubens; it was copied and adapted After a very long and somewhat two days, I found the by many other artists and translated into stained glass ( top left ). experience of such exuberant colours both mesmerizing and There is, however, a problem of attribution here: whereas some uplifting as I rested my overworked feet (Catrin’s pedometer features, such as the heads of the two women ( above ) (which revealed we had covered 14 miles the first day!) and took in its have been compared to the glass at Lincoln’s Inn chapel) appear glorious tones. This was an exciting end to a fantastically varied to be Butler’s work, other figures more closely resemble the work selection of glass, well done organizers! Chris Wyard

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